September 02, 2014

See this from the Zionist Federation aka ZFUK (can you see it? It's supposed to be a web version of an email they sent out)

‘Israel-bashing’ Event Cancelled

after ZF Announces Protest

An
event discussing media coverage of the recent Israel-Hamas conflict has
been cancelled, following plans by the ZF to protest outside it.
“Reporting the Israeli–Palestinian Conflict – Emotion, Bias and
Objectivity,” organised by the Frontline Club, was scheduled to be held
on Sept 3 at the Shaw Theatre.

The
three speakers who were to discuss this issue were Jeremy Bowen, Jon
Snow and Martin Bell. Jeremy Bowen, Middle East editor at the BBC,
recently wrote an article in which he dismissed claims that Hamas uses
civilians as human shields. Jon Snow, presenter of Channel Four News,
went viral when he recorded a plea for action over Gaza which again
whitewashed Hamas. Given their failure to hold the terrorist group to
account for the conflict, it seems unlikely that they would be able to
identify anti-Israeli bias in the media.

Following the ZF's consultation with the police and the theatre, the event has now been cancelled.

Alan Aziz, ZF Director, commented:

“The
failure of the media to explain the actions of Israel, which is a
democracy with the obligation to defend its citizens, and Hamas, which
is a terrorist organisation committed to genocide, is one of the most
pressing issues for those who care about the Jewish homeland. The ZF
decided to hold a protest against an event which instead of tackling
this subject properly would have simply been another forum for
Israel-bashing, and we hope a more balanced panel can be found if the
event is re-scheduled.

This event has been postponed. A new date and venue will be announced soon.

Ok, but why has it been postponed? Well it's not often you'd turn to the Jewish Chronicle's Marcus Dysch to get the facts of a case but tucked away in one of his recent articles was this:

An event organised by the Frontline Club looking at media coverage of
the Gaza conflict has been cancelled by police after the Zionist
Federation announced it would demonstrate outside.
The session was due to feature journalists Jon Snow, Jeremy Bowen and
Martin Bell at the Shaw Theatre in central London, next week.

ZF director Alan Aziz said police had notified him that the event would not go ahead due to safety concerns.

The Frontline Club said the event had been postponed because the planned speakers were unavailable.

So what really happened. Did police cancel the event? Was the Frontline Club frightened of the Zionist Federation? Or were the speakers unavailable?